Major lurker here until recently. Very recently. For me, I find I get a lot of valuable information from those who post frequently, but I also love it when new people share their unique perspectives, and it adds much to the discussion.

I'm always concerned that some of my posts will come across as lame, but overall I think that posting is better than not posting, because you never know who needs to hear your perspective today.

Major lurker here until recently. Very recently. For me, I find I get a lot of valuable information from those who post frequently, but I also love it when new people share their unique perspectives, and it adds much to the discussion.

I'm always concerned that some of my posts will come across as lame, but overall I think that posting is better than not posting, because you never know who needs to hear your perspective today.

Well said. I like all the different perspectives as well.

In the absence of knowledge or faith there is always hope.

Once there was a gentile...who came before Hillel. He said "Convert me on the condition that you teach me the whole Torah while I stand on one foot." Hillel converted him, saying: That which is despicable to you, do not do to your fellow, this is the whole Torah, and the rest is commentary, go and learn it."

I think another reason I don't post is because the part of my life where I address my faith, belief, church acceptance/disagreement, and family dynamics is painful. For some reason, I can tolerate the pain of exploring those things while lurking, but speaking/ typing about them is sometimes too much.

I do think there is a general path (or few paths) that people follow once they start moving away from being 100% traditional Mormons and visit this site.

My assumption is that many read a bit to see what this site is like, start timidly posting a bit, become active, and then most generally taper off and lose interest as they move on and Mormonism is less of a "thing" in their life. There are some that stay as they are still engaged (or forced to stay engaged) and this place helps. Some stay active here for no other reason than to help others (I really commend them for their service to others).

I was about to dump the info you get on the "members" pages here, strip out the names, but look at when they join, when they last commented, when they last logged in. My assumption is that the vast majority come for a while, it either helps or it doesn't, and they move on quickly or after a while. I think there is some interesting info there, but I ran into issues of getting curl and authentication and after about 2 hours of digging around, I gave up (at least for now) as I have life to get on with.

I have seen this same thing on other sites. Eventually most people just care less and move on with their life. In some ways I think that is good and healthy.

Our activity rate is way lower than the church's as LH points out. But then we don't go around saying we're the fastest growing LDS forum either (and that's not only because we're not).

A little off topic, but come to thin of it I haven't actually heard that fastest growing church line in some time. Of course it was only true from one point of view anyway, and even then it was questionable.

In the absence of knowledge or faith there is always hope.

Once there was a gentile...who came before Hillel. He said "Convert me on the condition that you teach me the whole Torah while I stand on one foot." Hillel converted him, saying: That which is despicable to you, do not do to your fellow, this is the whole Torah, and the rest is commentary, go and learn it."

A little off topic, but come to thin of it I haven't actually heard that fastest growing church line in some time. Of course it was only true from one point of view anyway, and even then it was questionable.

In our current age of the decline of religion, I'd say the Church's motto could be: "We are the slowest shrinking church in the world."

"Let us therefore no longer pass judgment on one another, but resolve instead never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of another." --Romans 14:13

A little off topic, but come to thin of it I haven't actually heard that fastest growing church line in some time. Of course it was only true from one point of view anyway, and even then it was questionable.

In our current age of the decline of religion, I'd say the Church's motto could be: "We are the slowest shrinking church in the world."

I'm not sure that's true, either and if it is it's probably only true from a certain point of view (as a percentage of membership lost or raw numbers compared to Catholicism, for example).

In the absence of knowledge or faith there is always hope.

Once there was a gentile...who came before Hillel. He said "Convert me on the condition that you teach me the whole Torah while I stand on one foot." Hillel converted him, saying: That which is despicable to you, do not do to your fellow, this is the whole Torah, and the rest is commentary, go and learn it."

I think all the answers above apply, plus a few more. If you are the first transitioner in your family it's pretty scary. Timing/speaking/sharing suddenly you are out. Lurking allows you time to process.

As to everyone who thinks we are a group of intellectual thinkers - no worries. We are just a bit more experienced. More of a mentor than a know it all. Each of us has different histories, issues, and processes we have gone through. Beyond that we are going through it one step at a time like everyone else.

For my part I always imagine a team of lurkers reading late in the dark when I post.

"I stayed because it was God and Jesus Christ that I wanted to follow and be like, not individual human beings." Chieko Okazaki Dialogue interview

"I am coming to envision a new persona for the Church as humble followers of Jesus Christ....Joseph and his early followers came forth with lots of triumphalist rhetoric, but I think we need a new voice, one of humility, friendship and service. We should teach people to believe in God because it will soften their hearts and make them more willing to serve." - Richard Bushman